Wagan EL2201 Elite 400 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter

• 400 watts continuous power, 800 watts peak surge power
• 1 AC outlet and 1 USB port
• 12 volt DC plug allows for connection in your vehicle
• Overload, overheat and low battery protection
• Recharge appliances faster and extend life of appliances using pure sine

After much research, I bought the Wagan EL2201 because I was looking for a pure-sine-wave inverter in this size range and Wagan's other products seem to have a fantastic reputation.

There are lots of poor reviews on this one, and the problem seems to be the same: The unit starts up once, then immediately dies.

Problem: The cigarette lighter adapter comes with a fast-blow fuse. My unit did the same thing, and I found that the fuse (located inside the plug itself) had blown as soon as I plugged a very low-draw radio into the inverter. Inverters have lots of capacitors that need to charge then the unit powers up, creating a momentary large load that a slow-blow fuse can absorb, while a fast-blow cannot.

A 400-Watt inverter is pretty large to run on a cigarette lighter plug in the first place, and should definitely be run directly from the battery or hard-wired if you plan on using anything with a significant draw.

In fact, the instructions say NOT to use the cigarette lighter if you plan on running anything more than 150W.

Solution: Replace the fast-blow fuse included with the inverter with a slow-blow OR a larger fuse (do NOT exceed the rating of your vehicle's outlet!). This is a $0.50 fix and my inverter now works flawlessly!

I'm guessing that the poor reviews are from those who use the lighter adapter and have this problem, while the positives are those who either hard-wire or connect directly to battery.

Now my inverter works great, doesn't play havoc with ANYTHING (unlike my modified sine-wave inverters), and the price was right. The built-in USB is a nice touch too.

Bottom Line: Great inverter for the price if you don't mind replacing a fuse or hard-wiring. As mentioned before, an inverter this size probably should be hard-wired anyway.

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I see some very negative reviews of this 400 watt inverter, but my wife and I have been very pleased. We live in a 100% solar home and have found the unit great for running our computer, printer, and powered computer speakers all at the same time. I have even run my Pioneer surround sound, DVD player, and 100watt powered sub-woofer at the same time. This use has been during the day, but there was certainly no shortage of power from the unit whenever the input voltage has been sufficient. One thing I need to mention is that I replaced the cord with the cigar lighter end on it with my own 2 foot long, 10 gauge wire with a three prong plug on it that plugs into our 12vdc in house recepticles. When I first bought the unit I had issues with low voltage signal too, but I do not believe the supplied cigar plug makes good enough contact to conduct the needed voltage. If you have the low voltage issue, try another type of plug or direct wire it. It is not unusual for this unit to be on 6 to 10 hours a day in our home and operates flawlessly. Yes, the cooling fan kicks on and off, but that is what it is supposed to do. I have also used it to charge various battery operated items drills, NiCad chargers, and the like, once again no problems. The ONLY reason I did not give it a five star rating is due to the issue with the cord. When you consider that most cigar lighter sockets are designed to handle 15 amps DC before blowing the on-board fuse (that's with the vehicle running), its easy to see why only the lightest of loads can be run using the supplied plug. Anything large use battery clips, direct wire or hardwire it into your system. Bought the unit about six months ago, should have done the review sooner.

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Hi this is The 5TH inverter i have bought in the last 4 Months. This is also the smallest, and so far best performing. Having said that be honest with yourself when sizing your inverter.I have taken my living room off grid part time. This inverter powers my 40 in. SONY 3D-HDTV-DTV,BOX, MY Surround System 5.1 my Sub woofer,a pole fan.47amp @ 120 volts a/c. 5-5watt 12volt d/c floresent lights for avg 4 hours a night. MY Watt usage avg.about 225-watts,or 1100 watts total@4HR avg. I have Booked about 27 hour so far and videoed my first use of it out of the box .Ran it 7 hours. NO Trouble At All. Puts out allways at least 116.4 volts at all times. this Is Hands Down the best of the Bunch. I,m HOOKED up to 4,100 AMP HR.DEKKA DEEP CYCLE Batterys Im Running 2 # 6 Wires For this Small inverter ,more than enuff for a 3ft run. I live in So.FL. So sun is plentifull,with a 200+watt PV set up.I hope This helps some 1 From making the mistakes I made.

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If you draw more than about 5-10W the fan comes on and it's pretty noisy. Otherwise my unit works fine (I am not using the cigarette lighter plug).

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My initial performance tests were promising. Unfortunately, the first time I tried to use the unit in a practical application, the little switch next to the AC power socket failed. The toggle just flopped back and forth loosely without moving the electrical contacts. I had plans to use the unit within the next day or two so I replaced the switch myself. After using the unit for 30 minutes or so to power a 60 watt drill battery charger, the unit became quite hot. This is not how a 400 watt device should behave! I allowed it to cool thoroughly and tried it again. This time I held the unit directly in front of a blowing air conditioner vent to guarantee no overheating. Within 10 minutes or so, the unit got hot anyway and started making a high pitched squealing noise. I disconnected it and it never worked again. Since I had previously (and foolishly) repaired it myself, I assumed the company would not honor the warranty and just declared it dead.

Before giving the unit a proper burial, I did an autopsy on it. I happen to be an electronics manufacturing expert by trade and decided to see what I could discover. What I found was simply an appalling lack of workmanship and design for manufacture. If I had examined the internals immediately after receiving it, I would have returned it without ever trying it. My advice is to rule out this unit, however cost effective it might appear, and buy a quality unit from a name brand manufacturer instead.